What is programmatic display advertising?

Programmatic display is banner advertising bought through automated real time auctions, targeted by audience rather than by website. A publisher makes an impression available, dozens of buyers bid on it in the time the page takes to load, and the winner's banner appears.

How it differs from the Google Display Network

The Google Display Network is one buying path into Google's own publisher pool. Programmatic through an independent demand side platform reaches many exchanges, including inventory Google does not sell, and gives you direct control over inventory quality tiers, placement blocklists, and third party verification. It also costs more to operate and needs someone who knows what they are looking at.

For most small and mid sized businesses, the Google Display Network is enough. Independent programmatic earns its keep when you need specific inventory, audience data Google does not have, or a unified buy across display, streaming, and geofencing.

What display is actually good at

• Retargeting people who already visited your site. This is the highest value use by a wide margin.
• Holding awareness between higher impact touches like streaming or search.
• Reaching a defined audience list with a simple, repeated message.

What it is not good at is generating first contact demand from cold audiences at a small budget. Nobody sees a banner for a service they were not thinking about and fills out a form. If a vendor is selling display as a lead generation engine, ask to see the last click data.

The quality question to ask

Ask for a placement report showing the domains and apps your impressions ran on. Any competent buyer can produce it. If the answer is that placements are proprietary, you are being asked to pay for inventory you are not allowed to inspect.

Related: What is a DSP, and what is a private marketplace?, Does display retargeting still work?, How do you avoid ad fraud and bad placements?, paid advertising services.